Argentina national team talk from locker room to pitch in World Cup final

1. Just some comments..

   Spain may have benefitted from an extra day rest and played to wear Argentina down in the game by passing the ball around. Fifa should have both semi final matches played on the same day to be fair.

   Argentina seemed to have incurred the wrath of most media especially the British ones heh..:
   telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/07/19/world-cup-final-live-spain-v-argentina-score-latest-updates/

   but some US media more sporting: prostinternational.com/2026/07/22/spains-dominant-performance-in-the-2026-world-cup-final-forced-argentina-into-a-defensive-match-in-a-120-minute-battle/

   Other sites offer analysis on how Spain supressed Messi & team..:
   nytimes.com/athletic/7457459/2026/07/20/spain-argentina-press-counter-world-cup-final-tactics/

   Spain probly pinned Arg. back in their own half to disrupt their style of midfield buildup and gradual attack forward, forcing Arg. to play long balls early – thereby lose possesion.
   I think Messi wanted to play attacking game but Scaloni insisted on defensive play probly coz the players were tired n injured.

   If Spain didn’t score the goal, Argentina may be champions, winning on penalties. Out of luck perhaps, Spain scored and Arg. had to switch to their native attacking play the last few minutes but out of time..

2. So the same people who vilified ARG through out this WC for views posts and follows are now making ARG to be the victim for the exact same thing. I personally don’t blame these low lives, I blame the imbeciles who follow every word, so stupid to believe anything and everything.

   I do not believe that ARG would throw the game because FIFA told them so, just like back in 1990 when ARG was supposed to allegedly lose to host Italy who were promised the cup and suffered the consequences.
   Spain won fair and square, ARG failed to impose anything to get and keep the ball and that was ultimately the downfall, take the loss, Keep supporting, quit whining and believe in the future and don’t assume it will never happen again.

   • What’s wrong thinking Argentina is victim. They showed the banner which can trigger some very strong people. The WC happened in USA. The ally of the invaders..The last time world cup happened in USA we lost maradona. The USA who suddenly digging on Tapia money laundering case in the middle of 2026 wc. Why ? Also the Argentina is a victim was said none other than Great maradona himself…Who said the president said ” the best we can do is final”…not everything is so black and white and mainstream headlines aren’t the only source of truth.

3. This forum has become a total shit show. @Roy needs to start banning members.

   Members trying to discredit Messi, and question his integrity. Messi has spent nearly two decades at the highest level and has consistently been known for his professionalism and sportsmanship. He has never built his career around diving, cheating, or asking his own teammates to fake injuries.

   I don’t need to see the video to know its total bullshit.

4. @alexZyan

   I found the video. The video looks authentic but I can’t tell whether the audio is authentic or fabricated. But even if Messi was telling Licha or Cuti to get injured, it’s also possible they were already carrying injuries and were never supposed to play the full match, but were forced to play around 60 minutes anyway, just like Paredes.

   • Yeah that’s my issue with it and why I’m taking it with a grain of salt currently. Just thought I would bring it up for people’s discussion. Though it seems like a couple ppl on the site have taken it in the wrong way and think it paints Leo in a bad light but honestly I’d argue the complete opposite IF it’s true but I’m not tryna be enemy No. 1 on this site lmao so I won’t be propagating that point any further.

5. 1. We need tall Cbs. I think we have some already . That Real betis cb, Senesi are promising. Also that Athletico Madrid cb who was once targeted by Barca and 6.3 feet tall. All of them need to come forward and perform.

   2. We need first wingers. Only one winger that gave me some hope was Garnacho but he must need to transfer away from Epl and increase playing time. Soule looks another gd option for now. Simeone needs to improve more . He created a gd chance but we were so unlucky that day. Prestiani i have high expectations from him always.

   3. Wingbacks and fullbacks. Molina should leave Athletico madrid and try to get back his 2020-23 form. Oso expressed interest to play for us. He looks so interesting . Giay can be an interesting option too. Tagliofico idk how long he can play but i can see his ending very near 🙁 . Medina showed some good defensive works.
   Nicolas capaldo should give some opportunities. For now i hope molina gets dropped.

   4. Our midfielders. We have some big names. Barco , Perrone, Paz, Verela, Enzo baranchea and many more . All of them need to show their talent.

   5. Cfs: Lopez , Panichelli is promising. Lautaro and julian can easily play another World cup. We also have Santiago Castro and Pellegrini. Maps

   Last i really miss our squad in 2020-2023.
   When all of them were performing at club levels . Papu gomez, De paul, Molina, dybala they were scoring goals after goals that time for their clubs. Acuna was La liga’s best LB. Guido rodrigrez was wanted by so many teams. Nicolas Gonzalez with Fiorentina was their superstar. All of them were at their prime during that time. Really miss the time.

6. One good thing I did was staying away from social media, so I didn’t have to see all the unnecessary noise and trolling. I knew there would be criticism trolling from the entire world and that sick faced CR7 & his sick fans, so avoiding it was better. Its 2026 and still they like CR7 its pathetic.
   I didn’t even post a single WhatsApp status because I never celebrate early. Even after beating England and reaching the final, I stayed quiet. Happiness or disappointment is personal — I don’t need to show every emotion to everyone else. That helped me get over the final loss. It hurts, but we move on.
   Another thing is that we may not reach the top of the football world for some time in the post-Messi era. Looking at the talent we have coming through, it seems we might have a long road ahead again, It all depends on the Coach.

7. Brazil vs Germany 7-1 and Argentina vs Spain both are rigged games. Thiago silva and Neymar was out before Brazil game and Argentina players looked like they are going to someone funeral not playing a wc final. The amount of anti Argentina campaign funded throughout the world cup including the mainstream media.. Then messi not winning most obvious golden ball. I wonder which Elite vvip argentina pissed to see this happening to them…

8. Guys… in the video there’s a part of the clip where Leo turns his back to the camera and he turns to Licha and Cuti he goes “Viejo hagan dos lesiones” asking for 2 injuries to which Licha nods along. And later on in the game, that’s exactly what happened. Lisandro and Romero both went off with injuries.

   Any thoughts on what that could all be about??

   • kindly provide the link of the video plz ?

     • Well the first link is the full video of the walk and the incident happens at around 1:46 where Leo turns around fully facing away from the camera, glances behind him for one last check at the camera still going backwards and slows dow his pace to talk to Dibu, Licha and Cuti with some distance away from the lens. He also then lowered his voice so the camera and microphone couldn’t pick it up his words easily.

       https://x.com/AlbicelesteTalk/status/2079750665677459712

       This clip below shows that section with a raised volume where you can hear Messi’s voice more clearly and what he says about “dos lesiones” to Cuti and Licha.

       https://x.com/unchabondemas/status/2079811926436032945

     • Ok idk if I can send the links cuz it seems like my response with the links has to go through moderation.

       • Try sending the link. See if it gets struck through by moderation.

9. This video is being circulated a lot.
   There is something that went wrong for sure. Even when coming out this team had an amazing aura always and we used to sing the national anthem like possessed by demons – watch any other match. But in this match the moment the team came out of the locker and when the anthem was being played – me and my family were this is not the team we are used to see. And we were similar on the pitch – this wasn’t team we had always seen!

10. 3 finals – 2 disasters & 1 magnificent performances
    Nothing in between

    Really have no idea how or why we played so poor or without any urge to win the cup. If we had attacked, we would have def won I believe.

11. I just analyzed the match..now I understand we were completely outsmarted by the ‘tactics’ not by the bad performance of our players or the other issues.. Scaloni failed against his master.

    It was like a chess board intelligence perfection Spain coach fielded the players. Scaloni was his student, so he knew all of Scaloni’s ideas.

    Whenever our players got the ball Spain cut the passing options with almost perfection. We would have tried different tactics when match progressed. But..we didn’t have proper players to counter this.
    Simeone was not ready and Nico was not upto the standard we needed..!

    Scaloni didn’t plan a replacement for Di Maria. We needed fast wingers with ball control, dribble and score. Not needed the world class..but at least with these skills. We could have tried the long ball continously and unsettled their shape/tactics, that would have opened up the opportunities for us.

    I don’t know who can do that role of dimaria.
    We have to try Prestianni, Garnacho(but attitude problem), Simeone(hopefully he improves, good for pressing),
    From the new boys..Subiabre and Maher Carrizo (I have high hope on them).
    Any other..?

    Long ball to fast wingers, Alvarez sticking on CBs than doing all the dirty work,…it would have been a different story.

    • Subiabre is too ordinary. I watched him closely in the last U20 World Cup. Carrizzo has potential. I also noticed some good moments from Santino Adino but it seems he moved to Greece?

      Anyone knows how does Alvaro Montoro do lately? He was very highly rated as I remember.

    • How do you even have the nerve to go back and watch that disastrous game again? Honestly, I don’t think there’s a single thing from that match I could bring myself to rewatch. Even the 2014 final had moments I still go back to, even if they make me feel miserable. But 2026? Absolutely nothing. It was a complete disaster.

      Not even a single shot on target, and then having to watch so many of our players lose their heads and act like thugs. It was, without a doubt, the most painful Argentina match I’ve ever watched.

      Part of me wants to rewatch it just to understand exactly what went wrong, but I honestly don’t have the stomach for it. Still, thanks for putting in the effort to analyze it. From what I remember after my first viewing, I pretty much agree with your conclusions.

      One thing we really lacked was a player who could make line breaking runs behind Spain’s high defensive line. Di Maria’s goal against Brazil in the 2021 Copa America final is the perfect example of the type of movement we were missing. We desperately lacked quality off the ball movement. In that particular game, I actually think Lautaro would have been a better starter than Julian Alvarez because he’s much better at making those runs.

      I remember Nico making a few of those movements early in the match and getting into some dangerous positions, but his final pass just wasn’t good enough. We never really managed to exploit the space behind their defense after that.

      I also think not facing a team like Spain at any point during the Scaloni era put us at a disadvantage. We simply had no experience dealing with a team that presses that aggressively while holding such a high defensive line.

      I honestly believe we’d put up a much better fight if we played them again in the Finalissima because we’d now have the experience from the World Cup final. In fact, I think if the Finalissima had been played before the World Cup, we would have performed much better in the final itself. Not agreeing that match was a huge mistake by the AFA, in my opinion.

    • 1. We need tall Cbs. I think we have some already . That Real betis cb, Senesi are promising .

      2. We need first wingers. Only one winger that gave me some hope was Garnacho but he must need to transfer away from Epl and increase playing time. Soule looks another gd option for now. Simeone needs to improve more . He created a gd chance but we were so unlucky that day. Prestiani i have high expectations from him always.

      3. Wingbacks and fullbacks. Molina should leave Athletico madrid and try to get back his 2020-23 form. Oso expressed interest to play for us. He looks so interesting . Giay can be an interesting option too. Tagliofico idk how long he can play but i can see his ending very near 🙁 . Medina showed some good defensive works.
      Nicolas capaldo should give some opportunities. For now i hope molina gets dropped.

      4. Our midfielders. We have some big names. Barco , Perrone, Paz, Verela, Enzo baranchea and many more . All of them need to show their talent.

      5. Cfs: Lopez , Panichelli is promising. Lautaro and julian can easily play another World cup. We also have Santiago Castro and Pellegrini.

      Last i really miss our squad in 2020-2023.
      When all of them were performing at club levels . Papu gomez, De paul, Molina, dybala they were scoring goals after goals that time for their clubs. Acuna was La liga’s best LB. All of them were at their prime during that time. Really miss the time.

    • Prestianni first in pecking order to me. Garnacho, why not… As of 2025 we have world second best u-20 team and that’s a lot to start with general optimism. Prestianni, Carrizo, Milton Delgado (adidas Bronze Ball in the tournament, like his passing scope), Silvetti, Montoro, Soler deserves attention.

12. FIFA and the United States worked together to ensure Argentina lost.

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